Golden re-generation continues apace
“Our challenge is to make sure we don’t just sit back and think that a certain group of players is going to take us forward,” said Ange Postecoglou after Thursday’s win against Bangladesh in Perth.
After last night’s win in Tajikistan, he was again singing the praises of his youngsters. “The depth is getting really good,” the Socceroos boss said. “We’ve made some real progress [and] some of the new boys have added to what we can do.”
Aaron Mooy was particularly impressive across the international break. The Melbourne City midfielder is playing himself into the role of Socceroo link-up man with every outing in the green and gold, especially with the long-range rockets he can fire from outside the area.
Australia dominated play at Dushanbe’s Republican Central Stadium, but were most dangerous after Tom Rogic and Nathan Burns came on. Rogic was dominant against Bangladesh and made a difficult match against Tajikistan appear less so.
Burns had opened his international account in Perth, but his cameo a few nights later was more impressive. He engineered Tim Cahill’s first goal, and could easily have been involved in a couple more.
Massimo Luongo – virtually unknown at the start of the year; sorely missed in Kyrgyzstan a few months ago – was handy across both matches. Tommy Oar made the most of his limited game time, setting up the final goal of the night with the perfect cross onto Cahill’s head. None of them, however, could find the net themselves on the road.
More corners than a tridecagon
Despite a stellar performance in Perth, right-back Tarek Elrich was benched for the clash in Tajikistan, replaced by Ryan McGowan. Elrich was in the thick of Australia’s opening goals against Bangladesh, and it took the more defensive McGowan until the 74th minute to make a similar impact.
It was worth the wait. As he skirted around Burns, his overlapping run was rewarded with a defence-splitting pass towards the goal-line. McGowan found the ball, then found Cahill in a congested goalmouth.
Australia made heavy use of their flanks in both matches. All three goals on Tuesday night started out wide, and they won numerous corners. It was fitting that the opening goal came from one, even if it took 57 slightly tense and somewhat frustrating minutes for it to happen.
Australia wasteful, fortunate
Across Asia, the home sides won Thursday’s outings by a whopping 73 goals to three. Qatar sent Bhutan’s gross domestic happiness into freefall with a 15-0 win. Malaysia gave up seven first-half goals in Dubai. And there were many other unhappy returns.
The reason for such a lopsided day is easy to explain: it was all the highest seeds at home against all the lowest.
So with hindsight, Australia’s comfortable 5-0 win over Bangladesh seems either charitable – or a little underwhelming. Goal difference could have a huge impact on who makes it out of this group, and Australia had more than enough chances to notch up double figures.
Thankfully for Postecoglou’s side, their biggest threat – Jordan – were held to a goalless stalemate at home. Their opponent? Kyrgyzstan, a team playing well enough to challenge for a top spot themselves.
The tables were turned for Tuesday’s matches, when the higher-ranked teams hit the road. Not one of them lost, and Jordan were amongst the winners. They departed Bangladesh with four goals and three points.
Gulf opens up for Socceroos
The Middle East has been a career graveyard for Socceroos in recent years. Holger Osieck was no fan of the Gulf’s cashed-up, mid-tier leagues. And Postecoglou said the region played at “slower pace” shortly after taking the national role. “We want to play a high-intensity, high-tempo kind of game,” he said at the time.
He never ruled out picking any player based there – form counts, as Mark Bresciano showed – but the tide of Australians moving to the Gulf was stemmed. Now two of Postecoglou’s key men have decamped for there.
One of them, Mark Milligan, was handed the captain’s armband in Perth, and may be hard to turf out of the defensive midfield role when Mile Jedinak returns from injury. As one headline recently said of Bayern star Thomas Müller, he’s remarkably unremarkable. The same goes for Milligan: you can easily go 60 minutes without even realising he’s on the pitch.
But he gets the job done. His goal in Dushanbe last night wasn’t pretty, but it was what was needed to break the deadlock. And from there, there was no coming back for Tajikistan.
“All I look at is form,” Postecoglou said in Perth. “Millsy’s in good form, he’s in good nick, and he came in in really good shape to this camp. And I thought he played really well, led the team superbly tonight.
“My interest is the players playing well wherever they are. Whether that’s in the A-League, that’s in the Gulf, in China, in Europe...If they are playing well, they’ll be playing.”
James Troisi was clubless when this squad was announced, hence his omission. He has since signed for Saudi giants Ittihad FC, and given his positive history with Postecoglou, should return to the fold shortly. Now if only someone could talk Brett Holman out of his early international retirement.
Next stop: Jordan
Australia are yet to put a foot wrong on the road to Russia 2018, at least in terms of points collected. Three wins from as many matches has them sitting top of Group B, and they can virtually book their spot into the next round in a month’s time.
But that upcoming trip to Jordan is the biggest test they’ll face in this stage of the qualifiers, and there are a few areas of concern for the Australian side. They had no trouble dominating Bangladesh and Tajikistan for possession, but barely scored outside of two half-hour patches. Even Syria – who lead Group E – have scored more goals.
The defence was untested during this international break – goalkeeper Adam Federici barely touched the ball – but were troubled by Kyrgyzstan in June. Jordan at home is a much tougher prospect, and the Socceroos were beaten in their one and only trip there. (It was a 2-1 loss in 2012, which they avenged in the return leg.)
The task should be made a little easier with the return of key players: Robbie Kruse up front, Jedinak in the midfield, and Mat Ryan or Mitch Langerak in goal.
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